benedict the sixty is set to and his papa see with his successor inheriting a catholic church rife with sexual abuse and corruption allegations. foreign policy friction looms over the french president's maiden visit to moscow for high level talks and debate. iran and syria and even mali all topics of contention between france and russia will they get ironed out today on john thomas in moscow coming up i've got the details. and as the saying goes you should know your enemy but both israeli and palestinian press restrictions are making journalists work and lives increasingly difficult.

live from our studios in moscow you're watching r.t. with me and he said now it's good to have you with us two pm here in the russian capital eleven am in rome where pope benedict the sixteenth is set to retire later on thursday becoming the first pope to abdicate in six centuries and we say he wants to exit public life and remain head into the world he leaves his successor to be named next month to redeem the church's reputation following a string of child abuse and corruption scandals let's now get the latest from our chief arena who joins us live from the vatican to rina tell arena tell us how is the pope spending his final day. well it's so you could argue that people may very well be counting hours and until he flies out of here on a helicopter took us to build for a papal summer residence on the outskirts of rome about a forty five minute car right about

a twenty minute helicopter ride but the reason why you could be counting the hours of course is that on thursday during his address to the cardinals and to the masses gathered in rome to see the pope off for the last time he was actually delivered a speech that by many i was for claim to be the most sincere a sincere address that he has made in his entire a day or in his entire being a pope you talked about being tired about the pressure that was that was being put on him by being in this very very public spot he said that at times he felt lost and grasping for air or some sort of indication to hold on to everything that was going on around him but other than that of course we're expecting the pope to be saying goodbye to the cardinals right about now delivering a probably his. maybe the last to last the instructions to them of course they have another pope to choose so a lot is at stake here as well and there's probably quite

a few packing involved as well because when the when benedict the sixteenth became pope he brought with him about twenty thousand books so arguably we could talk about crates up on crates of being shipped into the vatican right now and then of course later being shipped out to custom gandolfo let's delve into some of the scandals in what sort of state is pope benedict leaving stepping down i should say as head of the catholic church. will of course if you ask your. of course there's a high chance they will say that the church is the exact same way as it was two thousand year ago and standing strong but when we came here we spoke to quite a few vatican experts all of him unanimously agreed that there is some major changes which should be implemented in the church they have all the indicated that the pope is eighty five years old he is a rather old man there is no getting around it as well as a lot of the cardinals in the quarter which is essentially the government body of

the vatican they're roughly the same age and they're all of course there is there are some issues which come along with that and of course a lot of them have also said that modernity and acceptance of things that are happening in the world right now is something that the cardinals as well as the next pope should keep in mind more on the state of the church you can find out from my report. it's the last day on the job for pope benedict the sixteenth come friday hilbert's hard to seclusion and prayer while in the vatican there is a feeling the real work is only just beginning it's not just about selecting a new bishop of rome some say but the very future of the catholic church the catholic church is undergoing a very important tries this it is a crisis at two levels it is a government tries these entities it tries itself they believe are. in the last years of the world was focused on the government tries to see devout to come to

gloria a pope benedict was a pope who is a great intellectual if you're a theologian but he has not is strong hand to lead the group he has not the temperament of a government so there was a lack of leadership which culminated in the great scandals over but the leaks are far from the splendor of the sistine chapel a closer look at the recent events in the vatican highlight disillusionment and frustration with the church on some of the part of the huge i distanced myself from the church when i became an honor. when i started talking about what had been taught and was eventually after all but some gambles brokered in the catholic church i realize that it doesn't represent my spirituality benedict the sixteenth may have been the first pope with a twitter account but many argue this measure alone was not strong enough in appealing to the masses and there will be no more tweets once pope benedict the sixteenth steps down now this is the age or transparency the age of the people the

church which should be properly. they've been. considering secrecy one of the. great assets everybody now you see that they will be to be the problem of the media they're really working on leases he went to change pretty things about the church for people the gabrielli of this inability to face up to and much less to punish those who may be responsible for tainting the image of the church is the deciding factor in abandoning catholicism. there's another scandal with a girl who disappeared in the vatican twenty years ago and they say the man found her remains. police are leading the investigation here but instead of helping them with. the investigation that's likely they knew were both on the state. and on top of all those cases of pedophilia with this is just disgusting the list of controversial events involving catholic priests or vatican officials reads like

a tabloid reports of sex abuse pedophilia accusations allegedly corruption and possible ties with the mafia while the media especially in italy has been having a healed day with the scandals the vatican either stayed silent or rebuffed all accusations but those things may be looking rather grim for the seat of st peter's at a first glance there's still a chance the catholic church can make a comeback which would be washable exchange you know with the with the church really splitting with three but then came out stronger. we become to reform because. the power. to the church is the spiritual but in spite of that. relations have left me wondering if the holy see has been blind the world is rapidly changing and that the catholic church has failed to keep up pace sure it has seen

a fair number of ups and downs as well as in two thousand year long history but there is opinion that perhaps taking an unpleasant development sweeping it under the carpet and sealing it with the people ring for secrecy in the tradition better left in the past in rome. well barbara doris the outreach director of the survivors network of those abused by priests says the church must persecute child offenders with the organization in order to win back the public support. how can you trust an institution that will continue to put the needs of predators above the safety of children and until that changes i don't see how any responsible parent can just blindly trust that the church will do the right thing the people that can protect the children are the bishops we have police and prosecutors who can arrest predators but often by the time a victim finds the courage and the strength to come forward the statute of

limitations has run and prosecutors and police can't do much bishops are on the front line bishops have the power they often hear about these predators and they have chosen to move them protect them shield them from from their crimes if the bishops were forced to turn over everything they know about these crimes to police and prosecutors would have a much better chance of protecting the children we feel that's what the pope can do he can set the example he can discipline even a handful of the complicit bishops who for you know who've been involved in this cover up cardinal mahoney would be a prime example. these men could be disciplined for the part they've played and once he did that he would set the tone of this behavior not only of the predators but of those to protect him will no longer be tolerated. we're always interested in your opinion on all the stories we're covering today we're focusing on the pope's departure and the future of the catholic church is no exception we've launched

a poll on the matter in the arts he asked section of our website let's check out right now what people are saying so far most viewers don't see any bright prospects for the vatican amid those mounting scandals we've been reporting about a third or so think that its influence will grow as a counter balance to to islam some of you predict either a schism which would leave the vatican once again powerless so another problem in the future and the minority marred minority of you eleven percent do see a resurgence but only after a long overdue system of reform let us know what you think log on to our team dot com and have your say. tough talks are expected in moscow as president vladimir putin hosts french leader francois loaned divisions over syria and iran remain the key points of foreign policy discord let's now get

some details from sean thomas he now joins us live and is following this much awaited maybe a visit what can we expect sean. well let me say it's certainly going to be an interesting day. alond has come to moscow for the first time to discuss trade relations and also to improve relations between the two countries as there are some tensions between the two but the main points of interest for russia are what's happening in iran in syria and in mali let's break that down for you first of all about the syria issue back when these two met in the summer not here in moscow but there they did have clashes about the topic of syria saying at that time that bashar al assad needs to go must be ousted. saying no this is not the case that the only way that anything can happen in syria for it to be real change needs to be bilateral talks or talks with all parties involved actually pointing to what happened in libya saying that there was foreign intervention there was an overthrow

of moammar gadhafi and look at situation in libya is no better than it was before moving on to iran along basically states that he supports tough sanctions against the iranian regime aimed at specifically eliminating their nuclear program putin says that iran actually has the right to pursue peaceful nuclear program but that it has to have tough oversight from the i.a.e.a. so two different positions there now when it comes to mali russia actually backs the u.s. position in allowing france to be involved in that operation in northern mali but says that the destabilization in that country is directly related to the failed policies like syria and in libya so there are some bones of contention there another thing that people are interested in is back in the beginning of this year between gave famed actor gerard depardieu a russian passport because he was not happy with the seventy five percent proposed

taxes in france and so some contention there of see how fat even by. from the table and all brought up but of course we'll be keeping track of this as it happens and will bring me more information as it becomes available well it sounds like the two certainly have a slew of issues to discuss will be joining you throughout the day for more some thomas live from central moscow. as france continues to support the syrian rebels some analysis analysts say say there is no solution to the conflict as long as the militants feel they can fight on with foreign backing this is just called free of politic we know this from sentries ago international politics is the way. things happen it's not about the people so and if he really wanted to help the syrian people he should have. sought a political settlement from the beginning and now we're entering almost

a third year of the conflict she then continued to fuel this conflict by bringing weapons and money to certain part of the opposition it's just getting worse and worse there are options to buy political settlements and bring some parts of the opposition that is willing to find a solution and discuss with the regime and get syria out of this conundrum but unfortunately important there are some players on the international scene who say one thing and do something different if really really interested in finding a solution and stopping the bloodshed the first thing to do is just stop funding and stop drinking weapons to the armed groups that way that would be obliged to sit at the table if this is not this isn't made by the international players i don't see how it's going to stop. we're going to take a short break here on our team but don't go away later in the program we report on the latest developments in the case of u.s. army private bradley manning accused of highly sensitive leaks at

a washington summons may be sealed to prove his alleged actions aided al qaeda terrorists. legal. her mother the to. the street. her her her her her her. her life a little bit misleading or low. cut

her. hair her. bottom a fairly. good to keep. the a. lid. wealthy british style. expert on tirelessly.

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here with our team live from moscow israel has closed off the main supply route ingalls a response to recent rocket fire from the strip the first since november conflict and as tensions rise some journalists in the region are finding their work and at times livelihoods affected by the ongoing standoff archies paul the slayer investigates how those trying to spread light on the situation are coming under pressure from both sides of the divide. november last year israel and gaza are at war and in the middle of it a gaza journalist reporting in hebrew for leading israeli newspaper it was the last major story sunny as rami would write for the hebrew press a month later gaza's ruling hamas party banned palestinian journalists from working

with israeli media accusing it of being hostile tel aviv refuses to recognize hamas and regards it as a terrorist organization and a magnet for mother i do not understand this decision unfortunately i feel that our struggle will have less meaning if we do not speak to the israeli media and make them hear our message sami feels he's on a personal crusade to help both sides better understand each other when his nine year old daughter was hit by an israeli missile it was his israeli editors who arranged for her to be bought across the border and treated and it was in the newspapers that he published his anger and anguish over israel's bombardment of gaza. the how to. israelis using the media in its war against us in this war journalists are under attack they want to kill all our words and reports that prove that there were riots in gaza at least their father has a half in the attack is coming from both sides of the border israeli journalist two are banned from working in gaza but ironically it's not hamas but tel aviv that stops them deeming it too dangerous for them to report from there is

a very scary place for israeli some a masked people came to my palestinian cameramen in gaza they gave him twenty five thousand dollars and we told him that the next time that the jewish is going to enter gaza please tell us where it's going to be a route with a car we're going to kidnap both of you and take you take him and release you ohad him oh is among a handful of israeli journalists who'd regularly work in gaza but after his government made it illegal six years ago his station employed gaza based palestinian journalists now because of hamas ruling even that has become impossible . very problematic decision from us for a lot of other decisions that the hamas made i think that the problem of normalisation in. connecting trying working with the israeli media the result is that the only reports leaving gaza are those hamas sanctions not

particularly promising in one of the recent human rights watch report that accuses a muscle harassing assaulting an arbitrarily detaining journalists israel too has come under fire for deliberately targeting reporters and media houses affiliated to harm us during its last war in gaza israel fell twenty places in the two thousand and thirteen world press freedom index due to the actions of its army in the palestinian territories these two journalists are with sami because he speaks of and engages israeli audiences. because you spend so much time in palestinian areas with few israelis days to trade the media blackout does little to shed light on the fate and future of ordinary gazans it also perpetuate stereotypes on both sides of the border that have done nothing but breed mistrust and hatred policy on t.v. television. let's take a look now at some other news from around the world the leader of italy's five star movement which came third in the country's general action has ruled out

a coalition with the center left describing the head of the democratic party period to reject their signing as a dead man talking to former comedian big reveal came claimed i should say he would not support any new government for political parties participating in the election with none of them gaining enough seats to govern leaving the country in political deadlock italian public demonstrated a strong anti are sturdy sentiment during the election leaving prime minister monti's party with the minority a vote in both the lower house and the senate. a car bomb has explode. did near a court in israel in the town of respond just outside of tel aviv two people inside the vehicle were killed by the blast early police assessments suggest the attack was criminally motivated televisa has witnessed two car bombs this year both are suspected assassination attempts. the libyan government is said to

urge the u.n. to lift an arms embargo imposed during the two thousand and eleven uprising that brought down moammar gadhafi regime plans were announced by the prime minister as tripoli desperately seeks to rearm its military which has been struggling to take control of the country since the fall of gadhafi militias contending many former rebels hold much of the power on the ground across libya's vast territory. and a court in bahrain has put seven people behind bars for ten years each for attempting to murder a police officer the incident occurred during ongoing anti-government demonstrations thirteen other people were acquitted it comes a day after two policemen were found not guilty of shooting protesters dead the ruling threatened to fuel more and rest in the sunni controlled kingdom that's been wracked by nonstop values for two years the authorities crackdown on pro-democracy campaigners have seen around eighty people killed on both sides and thousands

arrested. washington is looking to summon more than one hundred forty witnesses to the trial of army private bradley manning accused of leaking classified u.s. data the prosecution plans are aimed at verifying allegations that manning's leaks directly jeopardize american security the list of witnesses will include a navy seal from the raid that killed osama bin ladin was likely to attempt to prove al qaeda benefited from the release of secret information journalist kevin foley says it's purely an attempt to shift focus. the fear here i think is that you would be sensationalizing the proceedings and it would not it would make it nearly impossible for manning to have a fair trial it just because we've now been talking about terrorism terrorism and terrorism will get away from the fact that he is charged with the offense of releasing the information and they don't have to show that terrorists received it

this will continue the obama administration has ushered in this era of pursuing whistleblowers and making certain that they are prosecuted and they go after them zealously in a manner that they do not go after other individuals that's been the thing i think is the most particularly striking is you can have private contractors you can gauge in weapons smuggling like like the blackwater executives or you can have bankers that engage in financial fraud and they are pursued as jealously as whistleblowers . on our website right now what the next limo of russia's president could look like a contest to find a place to sign is in full swing with suggestions ranging from extravagant vehicles to more traditional soviet style examples of your pick at our team dot com. also the u.s. has officially labeled an environmental activist group struggling to protect wells

in the pacific as pirates find out what that now means for the so-called anti well if that's online. and coming up for you next we take you to russell's called the peninsula to discover the wonders of the legendary northern lights. i've got a lot of messages from our t.v. yours who are very concerned about drones living under skynet is not the american way and many are concerned about their safety and privacy congressman ted poe has introduced a bill that may address some people's concerns about drones this bill is the preserving american privacy act what's clear if i see how the government can use these drugs so basically the act adds bureaucracy to drone usage in order to

restrict it in theory protecting people's privacy the thing is that one side is arguing for drone usage and the other side for bureaucratic restricted drone usage but what about not using drones to spy on americans ever no drones should be used on american territory period and overseas they seem to breed more terrorists than they kill saying that there are only two sides to this issue for drones and well kind of for drones is absurd congressman poe if you would please be so kind as to change the name of your legislation to the drones are an acceptable form of tyranny act i would be very grateful to you sir but that's just my opinion. download the official publication if you so choose your language stream quality and enjoy your favorite.